McMahon, Murphy camps allege dirty tricks

11/5/12 6:41 AM EST

Allegations of last-minute dirty tricks are flying in the Connecticut Senate race.

On Sunday night, Republican Linda McMahon charged on her official Twitter account that “Congressman [Chris] Murphy's campaign is telling Democrats that it's illegal to split their tickets. He should be ashamed of himself.”

A spokesman for the Democratic frontrunner took umbrage and came right back at McMahon.

“This accusation is an absolute lie. Also, more generally, this is a desperate and dirty 11th hour trick by Linda McMahon to try to pull the wool over voters' eyes and make them forget that she endorsed Mitt Romney and supports his right-wing Republican policies,” said Murphy spokesman Eli Zupnick. “President Obama is on televisions across the state asking voters to support Chris Murphy, and we are confident that they are not going to be fooled by McMahon's latest bizarre campaign trick.”

The McMahon campaign was not able to provide any direct evidence to back up their claim, but spokesman Todd Abrajano said in an email they have “received multiple reports from our field team, as they have been canvassing, that voters in the cities are being told by the Murphy campaign that it is illegal to split their tickets.”

Talking Points Memo reported Sunday that McMahon's campaign is leaving doorhangers urging voters to cast a ballot for both her and President Obama.

“President Barack Obama and Linda McMahon will fight for us,” the doorhanger says.

McMahon is supporting Republican Mitt Romney for president, and Obama recently cut a direct-to-camera commercial ad talking up Murphy for Senate. McMahon, meanwhile, has an ad featuring voters saying they intend to vote for her and Obama.

Connecticut is sure to go for Obama, so McMahon will have to pick up a good chunk of his supporters to win the seat.